For more than 60 years, the coal mining town of Collie has been helping to power Western Australia.
The town's two mines in the Collie coalfields produce WA's entire coal supply and the three power stations churn out 70 per cent of the state's coal-fired electricity.
But with contract disputes bringing production to a standstill at one, and jobs axed at another, the town is now in limbo.
Collie miner Michael Broomhead has worked at the Griffin Coal Mine for 23 years.
Three weeks ago, his shifts were cancelled for the third time in four months.
"There's definitely no stability there, you can't plan anything, investments or holidays down the track," Mr Broomhead said.
"Christmas coming up, you can't even commit to taking the kids away for a fortnight in Busselton or something because you don't know where you're going to be."
The Griffin mine was bought by Indian-owned Lanco Infratech in 2011 after long-term owner Ric Stowe's empire crumbled into administration.
Industry insiders say the mine was overpriced, and Lanco bought in a hurried bid to shore-up coal supply for the boom in India.
"The cost of production is higher than the return from the coal itself so that's really the basis of the issue and after so long a parent company's going to say enough's enough," member for Collie-Preston Mick Murray said.
Sometimes bad news is better than no news at all, but there's absolutely nothing.
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) claims Lanco has been falling behind in payments to a local contractor, Carna Civil Mining, which employs the mine's workforce.
The union said Carna had been ordering workers to go home and paying them out of its own pocket, while trying to recoup what it is owed from Lanco.
During the last stoppage, workers said pay checks were four days late.
When they returned to work they found there was no fuel to run machinery for several days.
Workers have told the ABC they feel they are being left in the dark.
"Sometimes bad news is better than no news at all, but there's absolutely nothing," Mr Broomhead said.
Neighbouring mine Premier Coal has also been struggling.
It was bought by Chinese company Yancoal after Wesfarmers got out in 2011.
Premier supplies coal to Synergy's local power stations, which provide electricity for the south-west corner of the state, including the Perth metropolitan area.
Premier laid off several workers last year and the ABC revealed this week that general manager Colin Moffatt has left as part of a restructure.
Mr Moffatt's departure came just weeks after the State Government increased the price Synergy pays for coal from the mine.
Collie's CFMEU representative Greg Busson said the competing coal mines have created their own stalemate.
"The one that didn't have the contract would out-do the other one so they never ever looked for new markets," Mr Busson said.
"I think they've sort of cut each other's throat to get someone else's contract."
The union also claimed financial woes had led to a decline in machinery maintenance at the mines.
"The last bit of Ric Stowe's maintenance was put off on some of the machinery to get us through," Mr Busson said.
"Lanco were going to pick that up and then financial issues started hitting them, and then it was just a downward spiral as far as then they would start putting off some maintenance on machinery."
Workers claim things have now become so dire that the lack of maintenance is leading to injuries.
"Morale's low because you are getting smashed around in the machinery because things are rough," Mr Broomhead said.
"Dirt's not blowing up, roads are rough, machinery's probably not maintained as well as it should be, so people are getting hurt by the machinery because things aren't working as they should."
The ABC has been told regular maintenance shutdowns at the town's three power stations are being cut short ahead of schedule.
A source said a shutdown at Synergy's Muja plant earlier this year was scheduled to go for three months, but was halted after just six weeks.
Earlier this month, a cooling tower at Synergy's Muja D plant collapsed.
Workers have told the ABC they are sure people would have been injured or killed had it not collapsed on a quiet Sunday.
Synergy refused to answer specific questions about maintenance records and declined requests for an interview.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the company said Synergy had increased its maintenance budget between 2012/13 and 2013/14.
"The only scheduled major maintenance event cancelled by Synergy in the past 12 months was planned for Unit 5 at Kwinana Power Station," the statement said.
"This program was cancelled due to the decision to close the plant earlier than originally planned."
Debbie Bebbington runs a boutique in the heart of town said the mood is one of caution.
"All the small businesses are affected with it because people are worried so they're tightening their belts," Ms Bebbington said.
"They're not coming out and spending because they're just wondering, it's a bit of a guessing game whether they're going to have a job so they definitely tighten up."
The growing trend of workers living in surrounding areas like Bunbury also takes cash out of the town.
"You only have to go to the pubs on a weeknight, there's a fair few of them that are closed by 7:00pm," Mr Busson said.
"Some of them aren't even open during the day now, you used to go in there after 5pm and they'd be full with people in their work shirts, you don't see that anymore."
Local member Mr Murray said the Government needed to step in to protect the state's energy supply and the town's future.
"It is our base industry, it is the industry that Collie relies on and we've got to look after it," he said.
Mr Murray said if the Government does nothing, the company could go broke, putting 10 per cent of the state's power at risk.
"If we go further and we have a mine that then stops, the Western Australian power system is in jeopardy," he said.
"I don't care what the Minister says, it will be in jeopardy running into Summer and people will be short of power, and remember, no air conditioning."
But Energy Minister Mike Nahan said there was capacity in the market to meet demand.
He said the Government had invested in the coal industry but it would not prop up a private company.
"If they can't make it viable, I suggest they sell it," Dr Nahan said.
"It's a viable business, it can be profitable and there is a good market for its output and it could give a good long-term career to the many miners and the people of Collie."
Bunbury Against Coal Exports's Laurie Capill believes Collie could become a renewable energy hub, making use of existing infrastructure.
"Here in the South West, Western Australia, we're incredibly well-endowed, not only with solar energy but also with wind energy and wave energy," Mr Capill said.
"And particularly wind lends itself to being able to be developed in the Collie area with the power being fed into the grid.
"This would retain Collie's role as the energy centre for Western Australia but would diversify the local economy away from, start to diversify it away from, coal into these other areas."
Dr Nahan said there was a growing move towards solar.
"We will soon see that solar is the largest single supplier of electricity of the metro area," he said.
"It's not a lot now, it's about 40 megawatts so about 6 per cent, but growing at 20 per cent, it will be larger than the Collie coalfields in a matter of years."
There is a local saying that all power lines lead to Collie. Many residents hope this will not change.
"Locally there isn't much here apart from the mines and power stations, you know, power generation," Mr Broomhead said.
"Basically that's what Collie is."
Griffin Coal, Premier Coal, Carna Civil Mining and Synergy all declined interviews with the ABC.
Topics: coal, community-and-society, regional, collie-6225 First posted November 29, 2014 19:09:58View the original article here
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